The Black Glass Necklace
by flurobandaid
Summary: Vegeta's illegitimate daughter crash lands on Earth and she's elated to meet her father. He didn't even know she existed. But not everyone at home is happy. It also seems that Goten has caught her eye...
1. Goodbye

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any familiar settings or characters from DBZ or DGT, and the song used is by Green Day and I do not own it either. Please respect original characters and settings that I have created and do not use them without my permission.

**The Black Glass Necklace **Chapter1 – Goodbye

_I walk a lonely road  
The only one I that have ever known  
Don't know were it goes  
But its home and I walk alone_

_I walk this empty street  
On the Blvd. of broken dreams  
Were the city sleeps  
And I'm the only one and I walk alone_

_My shadows the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find  
Till then I'll walk alone_

_I'm walking down the line  
That divides me somewhere in my mind  
On the border line of the edge  
And were I walk alone_

_Read between the lines of what's  
Fucked up and every things all right  
Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive  
And I walk alone_

_I walk alone  
I walk alone  
I walk alone  
I walk a..._

_My shadows the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
Till then I'll walk aloneI walk this empty street  
On the Blvd. of broken dreams  
Were the city sleeps  
And I'm the only one and I walk a.._

_My shadows the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
Till then I'll walk alone_

* * *

It was the seventh day of the season. There were five seasons on the planet Aronai; the fall, the winter, the spring, the dry summer and the dark summer. The moon appeared full every forty-one days, and there were two full moons to a season, five seasons to a year. Aronai had been the fifth planet Merateya had known as home, and she was just thirteen years old - thirteen Korlish years, anyway, nine and a quarter Saiyan years, sixteen Aronainan years and twenty-four and a half years if she were on the planet Reukusub.

The Reuku people had a thing for purchasing slaves from Koralli, as Korlish slaves cute looking, with their tufts of pale coloured fur and wispy fair hair. The Reuku were well known for their perfectionism and their desire for everything to look wonderful and exciting. There were not many Korlish slaves at this trading, and there would not be another slave trade until the seventh of the next season, yet there were many elegant looking Reuku roaming through the markets, and Merateya could feel their eyes studying her. It didn't matter; Reukusub would be somewhere she'd have loved to go to. And the people were extremely friendly and caring, most slaves were treated more like children than servants. And she had pink and white fur, two of the more uncommon colours amongst the Korlish. Mostly females had green, purple or yellow fur, and only one colour instead of two. Males were usually blue, brown or orange. Her own parents had both been white, before they had died and she had been left to her mother's cousin, whose wife sold her in an instant.

Merateya growled deep in her throat at the thought of her, sniffing bitterly as she silently cursed the woman. She'd show her, she'd marry the Emperor of Reukusub's son and invite her to their wedding, where she would feel like an outcaste, lonely and unwanted, the lowest branch of the intergalactic social status.

The low, droning and mournful tone of a great bell rang through the market place, three times in a row. The crowds stilled, and the noise hushed. Even the animals for sale in the markets ceased to break the silence. Merateya could feel her heart beginning to pound against her ribs. This is it, she told herself. Thousands of people were going to witness her being poked and prodded, possibly partially undressed and humiliated just so the slave buyers could decide whether they would purchase her or not. The black band that had been tattooed around her left bicep glowed blue, beginning to prickle her skin. Her master pushed her along with a gentle nudge in the back. She had liked serving him; he had been the kindest of all her previous masters. But his niece had been wrongly arrested and he needed at least a thousand credits to bail her out.

"Please do your best, Rateya. I'm sorry that it had to be you, but you are worth so much more than the others," whispered the grey-haired man, using her shortened name, and he added with a bleak tone, "Arkked means the world to me."

Rateya nodded, "I know. Perhaps I will be freed, and I can come home to visit you." It was wishful thinking, neither of them said anything, it was discomforting to think it. It would never happen.

She stood up on the podium, ninth in the line, as people came up to look at her.

"Ah, this one is pleasing to the eyes," said one man with a southern Aronainan accent.

It was true. A silken covering of pale pink fur grew over her face, reaching her eyebrows, making a V at the centre of her forehead, and trailing to her delicate cheekbones and from there to just below her ears. The skin on her chin, nose, cheek apples, and eyes and around her mouth was the colour of ivory, her lips the same colour as her fur. She had nice shoulders, flawless and soft, lean muscles lining them and a sliver of white fur peeking out across the front of them, the rest hidden by her dress. In the same arched-v shape on her forehead there was white fur over her chest, only trailing several centimetres. The tip of the V reached her breastbone, and the top of the triangular shaped patch of white started just below her collarbone.

There was more fur on her arms, pink, starting at the elbows and covering her forearm like a glove, as it reached her wrist it began to turn to a triangular shape again, the point ending at the first knuckle of her middle finger. Her fingers and palms and thumbs were free of fur. Rateya's nails were kept short, filed square so that she was not hindered by them whilst doing her chores. She had silvery-blonde hair that shimmered in the daylight and caught the colours of her surroundings in sparkles of light. Like Saiyans, the Korlish also had tails, yet they were covered in silken, not coarse, fur. Rateya's was pink, and curled firmly like a belt around her waist. Her eyes were gold and cat like, with thick black lashes defining their beauty.

A Reuku approached them, he was young, aged about nineteen at the oldest, his hair fine and bronze coloured, eyes a glowing honey-colour. Rateya went still as he peered into her eyes, searching for something in them. She could feel him delving deep into her memory, feeling her spirit firsthand. It was rare that anyone could do this, and she when he did she could feel him intertwining his soul with hers so that he could know it. She liked him, he felt warm and interesting, highly intelligent. She hoped all the more that he would buy her. He stepped back, a knowing smile tugging gently at his lips. He had felt her think that.

He reached a hand out towards her, "May I?" he asked, not to her master, but to Rateya herself.

She nodded quickly, and shivered as she felt his hand stroke her fur. He was testing its texture. "Smile," he commanded her, not unkindly.

She obeyed, flashing her perfectly straight teeth at him, feeling like a cheeky child that was laughing at someone scolding them. It was peculiar, she thought, that feeling. It often came to her when the situation couldn't be any more different.

"Can you show me your predatory state without transforming?"

Rateya nodded, calling on her powers within her. Her ki burst through her veins, and she used it to transform to her predator state. He had said to do it without transforming, but she knew that he had meant without transforming fully. Her teeth had become sharp, dangerously lethal fangs and her nails had turned to feline-like claws. The man nodded, and she withdrew from her aggressive form, returning to her normal state.

"Tell me, child, who is the Emperor from the Ancient Times in Nyann that created the Crobian Medallion?"

Rateya thought for a moment, the medallion was a magical artefact that could give the wearer control of an entire galaxy.

"Well, to most, the Medallion is only a mythical legend," she began, "and it is commonly believed that the Medallion was created by Emperor Jiandara of the west country, however, I personally think that it was the Emperor Kelises of the east country, and that Jiandara took all the credit for it, after stealing it from Kelises. Forgive me if my contemplation of the legend interferes or offends your personal belief on the subject, sir."

"Not at all. My belief is perfectly in tune with yours, child," he replied. He turned to her master and added, "How much are you wanting for her?"

Her master made an unsure gesture with his gnarled hands, his sunken eyes sad as he realised he was really letting the girl go. "Make an offer," he said suggestively, his voice hoarse with both pain and age.

"At least 1200 credits but let me speak with her a little more."

"How old are you," he asked her in perfect Korlish.

A little taken aback by his knowledge of her language, Rateya took a moment to answer. "Forgive me for my slowness, I didn't realise you spoke Korlish. I am thirteen Korlish years old," she replied in Reuku, and the man smiled.

"So you can speak three languages," he mused aloud in the language of Saiyans.

"Seven actually, Saiyan included," exclaimed Rateya in Nyanni.

The man turned to her master again, "I raise it to 1700, good sir. Is that acceptable by you?"

Her master was almost in tears, he had never imagined having a pocket with that many credits in it. As he smiled in a bittersweet way, the lines that marked his face with age deepened, and Rateya could easily see the sadness about his lips and eyes. She felt her throat begin to go dry, her eyes hot with tears as she forced herself to keep them open and to breathe consistently, and heavy breaths that caused her chest to heave.

"Wait," cried out a voice from the crowd surrounding them. "I wish to examine the child."

They did not speak loudly, but there was something about their voice that let Rateya know they were powerful and important. As they made their way towards the pedestal the crowd parted and they fell to their knees in the man's wake. As the moved so that the shadows parted around their face, and the armour they wore glinted in the sunlight, that Rateya's master let out a gasp. As she noted the Saiyan armour they wore, their muscular build, broad shoulders, the power that radiated from everything about the person, she swallowed and finally brought herself to look at their face. She froze, recognising them immediately.

It was King Vegeta.

"Let me see the girl," he demanded. He looked into her eyes in a way very much alike to the other man, peering through to her soul. He stepped back for a moment to examine her fully. He turned to his scribe beside him, "It is her most definitely," he confirmed. "And the same age as my son. It cannot be anyone else."

"If I may inquire, Your Majesty, what it is it that is so unique about Merateya?"

Vegeta looked at her master, before repeating her name, trying it on her tongue, "Merateya? All the more reason to know it is you." He held her gaze for a long moment. "I knew your father," he told her with a patient tone, "We were great friends as children."

"2000 credits for the girl," Vegeta turned back to her master.

The other man, who had been standing aside for the past few moments, stepped forwards. "2200."

"2500," countered the king.

The Reuku glanced towards Vegeta and then at Rateya. "3000."

Vegeta was known for growing impatient easily. "8000," he had the money; a few thousand credits wouldn't hurt.

"9000," responded the Reuku. "There is something about you child, I can feel it more than anything."

"Please, sir, but, may I ask your identity?" Rateya inquired sweetly.

The man smiled, his eyes glowing more intensely, I am the Keeper of the Library of Reukusub. Otherwise known as the Bookkeeper."

Rateya blinked. He had to be one of the most important people, besides the Emperor, in Reukusub. The Library was where all information on everyone and everything was accounted and documented. And he did all of it. Alone. No wonder he wants me, she thought silently. He eyes flickered towards the King. And he had known her father.

"11 000," said Vegeta, crossing his arms across his chest, both he and the slave master turning to the Bookkeeper.

The man shook his head. "You have more money than me by a thousandfold, and this poor child need not stand out here in the sun while we confirm it," he turned to Rateya, a hand slipping into his pocket, "I shall remember you," he said, and he reached out to her, slipping a necklace over her head. It was beaded with droplets of black glass, each uneven in shape and smooth as ever against her skin. Her hand reached up to it, feeling its texture against her soft fingers.

"Thank y-," she looked up but he was gone, disappeared into the crowds.

She looked around for him, hoping to spot him somewhere, but she couldn't. A hand landed on her shoulder, "Goodbye Teya," her master whispered, his cracked lips pressing against her cheek in a fatherly manner, "Thank you," he said. She looked up at him, his bony cheeks glistening with tears, and her throat went dry again.

"Goodbye, Corbin, but do not be troubled. You are rich now. Remember me, as I shall never forget you. Goodbye," she said once more, blinking away her tears as she followed Vegeta's scribe through the crowds, her throat burning painfully, and she was too upset at the life she was leaving behind, one ridiculed with chores and rough times, to be excited about the one she was entering, in a palace with a prince and a queen and a king, and fancy banquets and tournaments, great food and soft beds. And as she followed her new master through to their space pod, she could hear and feel nothing except her tears and the black glass necklace she fingered around her neck. She would always remember that day.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Please review, and I will have another chappie up soon. Just so you know, Merateya is the mother of the fanfic's main character, this chapter was just kinda like a prologue.. thanks


	2. Alone, Disconnected and Unattached

Thanks for the lovely little reviews! They make me all warm and fuzzy inside…

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any familiar settings, characters, and etc.

* * *

**The Black Glass Necklace Chapter2:** Alone, Disconnected and Unattached

* * *

_I walk a lonely road  
The only one I that have ever known  
Don't know were it goes  
But its home and I walk alone_

_I walk this empty street  
On the Blvd. of broken dreams  
Were the city sleeps  
And I'm the only one and I walk alone_

_My shadows the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find  
Till then I'll walk alone_

_I'm walking down the line  
That divides me somewhere in my mind  
On the border line of the edge  
And were I walk alone_

_Read between the lines of what's  
Fucked up and every things all right  
Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive  
And I walk alone_

_I walk alone  
I walk alone  
I walk alone  
I walk a..._

_My shadows the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
Till then I'll walk aloneI walk this empty street  
On the Blvd. of broken dreams  
Were the city sleeps  
And I'm the only one and I walk a.._

_My shadows the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
Till then I'll walk alone_

_

* * *

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_

"RIKUNI!!!!" the voice that screamed the girl's name was fearful and blood curdling, and every moment after it seemed to last an eternity, the near-silent whispering of the wind through the windows turned into a lingering blur of rushed noises, screaming past her ears.

It had come from downstairs, following the sound of the front door slamming open, piercing through the silence of the nighttime. As fast as she could, Rikuni charged down the staircase, to find her mother retching blood onto the white carpet, turning it black with Korlish blood. It would turn purple in several hours, as it dried, and then fade away entirely, no longer there at all.

Rikuni was young, a Saiyan-Korlish hybrid with a slick pink tail and a patch of silken, pale gold coloured fur on the back of her neck beneath the masses of pink and gold hair. There were four thick streaks of brown amongst the pink and gold, marking her Saiyan heritage. Like any Saiyan hair, the brown was rough and spiky; she often kept them in small braids, woven with colourful ribbons and tied with spirals of a gold precious metal. Her years of childhood were now behind her, but womanhood had not quite reached her physique yet, years of training had prolonged the growth of her breasts and hips. She was dressed in a long-sleeved leotard, pink to match her tail and hair, her feet were bare, and the carpet was cool against her skin.

"Mama?" she whispered in a quivering voice, her body trembling uncontrollably. "Have they come for us?"

Her mother let out a heaving sob, blood dribbling from her mouth before she spat it onto the carpet. And then she nodded. "I only just got home. They were not far behind me; they will be here any moment. Go and collect food, put it in the space pod. Then we shall go."

Rikuni reached down to help her mother up. "GO!" screamed her mother. "GO! GO! GO!" Tears were streaming down the woman's face, glistening in the dim light that her ki provided and streaking her fur a darker colour. Rikuni's own eyes were hot with tears, and it scared her to see her mother cry. But she ran into the kitchen, her small hands and her tail hastily grabbing food from the shelves and then racing into the space pod. Panic and haste had ridden Rikuni so much that she threw the food into the pod before running back to get more. She had finished the fourth – and last – trip when she ran back into the foyer.

"Mama," she said softly, "I am done."

She knelt down to help her wounded mother up, her hands firm against the woman's silken fur as she wrapped her fingers around her wrists to pull her up.

"Tha-," before she could finish thanking her daughter, the door burst open with a flood of red light. There was a gaping hole left where the door was, the edges were scorched and smoking eternally.

The scent of smoke caused Rikuni's nostrils to flare, bringing more hot tears to her eyes. She blinked, her thick eyelashes catching the tears between them. Three of Frieza's soldiers stood in the opening, stepping forward with ki-glowing hands outstretched. Frieza was long assumed dead, just as his father, but his son had taken over. Frieza II ruled half of the galaxy Carion's planets, and had destroyed four in the last year.

One of the men stepped forward, the shadows parting around him and growing in the hollows of his eyes, and he appeared more skeletal and scary than he had moments before.

"Merateya 10428, you are to be detained for the offense of fleeing your master. As a slave's child, your daughter, Rikuni 31720 is to also be detained. You will serve seventeen years hard labour in the mines of Nyann for your absence of eight years. Rikuni 31720, aged nine and a half Tiuth years, or fourteen Korlish years, shall face eight Tiuth years serving Frieza the Second in the palace in Aronai, as she cannot be charged with any other service due to being aged under ten years."

His voice was monotonous, accented slightly as though he had only learnt to speak Tiuth recently. He snapped his fingers in a sharp click, and the other two men stepped forwards. Rikuni gasped. They were huge. She had been thinking about attacking them in defence, but they had to be at least twice her size. Never in her life had she imagined someone to have shoulders of that size. The pure strength and masculinity that radiated from them made her sick, and dizzy with fear, hot, sickly bile rose in her throat and she stepped back, cowering against the wall.

Merateya stepped forwards, flinging an arm out to shield her daughter. "You cannot take Rikuni. She is the child of Prince Vegeta. She is the princess of the Saiyans."

The soldiers snorted. "Even if it were true, it wouldn't matter. The Prince is dead. The Saiyans are almost gone entirely. She is the daughter of a slave and she is to serve Frieza the Second."

"She is the daughter of Vegeta. His father bought me at a trading when I was thirteen and until Frieza the First overthrew King Vegeta, I was treated as a member of the royal family."

"And why didn't the mark get removed," inquired the soldier, his voice cold and mocking, as he indicated to the tattoo on her arm with a nod.

"We were about to get it removed when the war started. King Vegeta was too preoccupied to worry about a mark on my skin…" as Merateya rattled on to the soldiers Rikuni watched on, hearing her mother's voice but unable to discern any words the stream of syllables broke into. Fear had ridden her too far.

_Rikuni_, her mother's ki flared inside of her, and a voice passed through her mind like a blast of icy wind, making her spine tingle. _I am going to transform. Then, run. Go as far from here as you can_.

Rikuni's throat closed, and her breath was caught in her chest. With all the strength she had, she fought the urge to look in the direction of her mother, focusing her vision on a shadow-filled corner behind on of the soldiers' shoulders. _And leave you here? Mama… I can't…_

_You have to. Come back afterwards, take the money in the safe, and then go to Reukusub. Find the Bookkeeper in the Library._ There was a slight pause and Rikuni could feel her pulse throbbing in her temple, each beat like a painful pounding in the head. _Can you? Rikuni?_

Parting her lips slightly, Rikuni took a numbing breath of cold, smoke-filled air. It burned her throat as it rushed through to her lungs, and she spluttered momentarily, tears springing to her eyes. _Yes Mama_, she replied with an emotional sort of numbness.

There was a large eruption of light and Rateya's ki skyrocketed, the power radiating from her was of a phenomenal strength. Rikuni froze, unable to move, gaping at her mother's transforming figure in awe. There was too much light for her too see her mother as the white had simply engulfed her, but she stared right into it, unable to look away, and did not squint - Korlish eyes could never be blinded from light. Through the corner of her eyes she saw the soldiers fall into their fighting stances each one watching the mass of white-hot light before them with unblinking eyes, and before she saw her mother's transformation begin, she had fled. On foot.

Rikuni was not a fool; the skies were a dangerous place to hide in. She did not know the place her feet brought her to. It was cold, dank and dark and in the middle of a near-desolate wasteland speckled with rocks and trees, covered in grass thick enough to cut skin. A little crevice between two rocks caught her eyes as she tore them away from the sky, watching the skies blacken unnaturally, bolts of lightning caused by an energy imbalance flashing through the heavens. Numbly, she lowered herself into the fissure, holding her breath as she sucked in her stomach and ducked her head under. It was dry inside there, dusty and cold, but dry. Through the gap, she watched the ethereal tempest brewing in the sky, every bolt of lightning lashing through the air and thunder growling above her, drawn to her mother's power. Rikuni did not blink for two hours; her eyes were fixated on the sky. But her watch buzzed at her with a low hum, it was four hours until the midnight, eleven until dawn. Near to the stillness of silence, her lips softly murmured a prayer for her mother, reciting the words of hope that had been engraved within her soul and memory by the teachings of Korlish monks. When she finished she realised the burn in the tip of her nose, and she sniffed softly out of irritation. Even with the slick coat of fur to protect her from the lower depths of temperature, her body could not adjust to cold. She could feel her pulse slowing gradually as it beat thickly beneath her skin, and the cold was seeping through the thickness of her cloak, sinking into her bones and sending chills down her spine. Rikuni inhaled deeply, the back of her throat dry as her breath rattled in her lungs, burning them with the rasping dry cold. It soon became hard for her eyes to stay open, and they gradually flutter closed. Within moments, she succumbed to the tiredness of her body and mind. She slept.

The child awoke twelve hours later; the sky was a colourless kind of grey, it was not dark but the sky was absent of sunlight and as pale as the few clouds that lingered above the cities with no promises of rain, but none either of fine weather. Rikuni opened her eyes slowly, careful not to make any other movement. Her senses were alert, and she could hear nothing but the low buzzing of insects as she listened. They suddenly went hushed, and Rikuni shivered in the noiselessness. It was the type of eerie silence that made her feel that she was not the only thing listening at that moment. Sending out a trickle of her ki, she searched for any others within the area. She found none, and she slowly crawled out of the gap between the rocks, one of them grazing her elbow, tearing the skin but drawing no blood.

She seated herself on a rock, wrapping her tail around her waist and allowed her ki to let her lift off the rock, still in her cross-legged position, and float in the air. Rikuni shut her eyes, inhaling softly to the count of seven, and then holding and exhaling for the same count. It wasn't long before she no longer needed to count, she could manage it subconsciously, and her mind was empty of thoughts, clear and completely alert to everything around her. When she opened her eyes again, the sky was scarlet with streaks of marigold and orange blending seamlessly together. The clouds absorbed the colours of the rising sun, turning pink and silhouetted in an outline of illuminating gold. The sun was half-risen, like a glowing semi-circle of ember above the flat horizon in the east, beautiful and heaven sent, so blankly unaware of the fearful night it had ended with the bringing of daytime.

The sun had fully risen when Rikuni had returned to her home, and the sight of it made her stomach lurch. She turned aside and fell to her knees, vomiting in the bushes. Shakily, she stood again, her skin ghostly pale and cold beads of sweat forming on her brow, catching in her fur and the wisps of golden hair that framed her horrified face. There were three walls still standing, one of them was half crumbled away, streaked in black soot and covered in brown dust. Several doorframes still stood, their doors burnt away and the walls they were once attached to fallen. The space pod stood half buried in wreckage, its white paint glaring vibrantly in the sun. Rikuni trudged through the exposed hallway, her legs heavy as lead as splintered furniture crunched beneath her feet. The stairway had collapsed, and absently the girl counted six steps leading to nowhere. Part of the second floor was still there in the corner, attached to two of the remaining walls, and a gaping hole that revealed the emerald green sky had formed where the ceiling and floor had collapsed or completely disintegrated.

"Mum?" Rikuni's small voice called out shakily. Her heart was pounding rapidly again, her breathing becoming shorter and shallower with every gasp and her hands were trembling as she tore debris away from the ground, searching for anything that could turn into a glimmer of hope.

Something sharp grazed against her skin, tearing her hand open in a swift, clean slice. Letting out a hiss of pain, Rikuni brought her hand up to her eyes, watching as blood slowly began to seep to her wound turning the slash dark, droplets of black beginning to form along the slice across her palm. Her golden eyes darted towards the ground, searching for the offender. It was their safe, dented and broken; one of the corners had ruptured and caused her wound. Rikuni watched as the wound on her hand healed over, her Saiyan blood coming into effect and the black shimmer of liquid beginning to turn purple. She reached down to the vault, careful not to scratch herself again, and snapped the door off it with a swift tug. It clattered loudly against the rubble when she discarded it, tossing it aside without looking at it once. There were several thousand credits in there, some jewels and some documents of Merateya's. She took it all, stuffing it into her pockets and turning towards the space pod.

Her expression was hard, her eyes an unholy gold, cold and focused, and her lips pressed together firmly to form a thin line. Merateya's words came to her …

"- go to Reukusub. Find the Bookkeeper in the Library-,"

Rikuni exhaled sharply, pushing her left hand against the entrance of the space pod, feeding her ki into it until it opened. Before long, she had initiated the launching system and prepared the power source of the pod.

"Destination: Reukusub…" chimed the mechanical voice of the system. The lights inside the bridge began to grow brighter, indicating the building up of force, Rikuni buckled herself into her seat, and her eyes shutting as she muttered a quick prayer. She inhaled through her nose, and sniffed…

_Something was burning_. Something prosthetic, plasticy, was burning and the smell made her dizzy.Her nose crinkled and her eyes shot open, she could feel the air against her skin grow hot. Something in her mind awoke and screamed at her, some sort of primal instinct. Danger! It screamed at her, as her senses suddenly burst into life and her mind instantly cleared itself of thoughts. Rikuni ripped the seatbelt off, and smashed through the closed door of the pod, her eyes hazed over and her pulse slow and steady. She spun around midair, a hundred yards from the pod and watched in stunned horror as it exploded, her hands flinging up to shield her face, the fiery heat licking against her skin as the blast died away. Rikuni opened her eyes and looked down to see that more than half of the wreckage had been completely disintegrated, and she knew immediately that if her mother had of been there before, she most certainly wasn't any more. There was a glob of melted metal – what had moments before been a top-of-the-range space pod – engulfed in lilac and blue flames, a circular perimeter around it of brown dirt blanketed in a silken cover of black soot.

_Well, that went well._ Rikuni spat out a mouthful of dust, her eyes following it fall to the remaining debris. Through the corner of her eyes she saw something glitter in the sunlight, and she darted down towards it, her hand reaching beneath what looked like a charred piece of the kitchen tabletop, her fingers brushing against something cool and glassy. They wrapped around it, smooth little lumps pressing into her skin. It was her mother's necklace, the black glass one, the one she had worn since before Rikuni could remember. Bunching it up in her hand, Rikuni pressed her lips against the beads, the glass cold against her silken skin, and slipped it over her head feeling the same coolness like a band around her neck. Her hands dropped to her side, and she stood there, amongst the rubble, her head turned towards the sky, and her eyes golden like stars yet dull and lifeless, disconnected and unattached. At that moment, she had never felt more alone. At that moment, she was no longer a naïve little child. She was a woman, a princess and all by herself.

Alone.

Disconnected.

Unattached.

* * *

And that is the end of chappie no.2! Hopefully I can get the next chapter done quicker than this one! Will be adding the familiar characters in the fourth chappie, btw. R/R! 


End file.
